Apnea Academy Instructors Course

[appyguy]

Hi everyone,
Just back from Sharm El Sheik and the instructors course. What an amazing experience. Umberto runs an excellent course, friendly, funny but extremely thorough. The supporting instructors were all of a very high calibre and approachable and easy to deal with. Certainly a course that I would happily recommend to anyone.

I had the good fortune to share a room with Stig Severinson from Denmark, Stig, I cannot thank you enough for the hours of one on one training you gave and your sharing of your knowledge and experience. I am certain I would not have achieved what I did without your help.

The group (about 25 students) was diverse with people from just about everywhere you could imagine in the world. Was just great to be involved with so many people passionate about freediving.

The venue at Sharm Village could not have worked better. Good food and accommodation, and 80+ metres of water within 50 metres of the beach.

For me the only hiccup was the airline loosing all of my luggage. Trying to get any sense from anyone in Egypt was impossible. Fortunately my wife managed to track it down from New Zealand. Found it all at Cairo airport on the way home.

So hat off to you Umberto, provided myself and I am sure I can speak for the rest of the students of the course with a truely memorable experiene.

Steve Bunton

 

[bluecape]

Hiya Steve

Envy you man, would love to do this course! South Africa generally has gone very quiet re freediving, apart from the spearo's, which is still healthy.
Am trying to generate some interest in apnea as a 'lifestyle' sport, and have loads of interest from other people, so would really like to attend Umberto's course.
I do realise that there are many great freedivers offering courses around the world, but Umberto was a legend to me before I even started diving, so to get the opportunity to learn with him would be very special.

Was always my great dream to meet and learn with Jacques Mayol, but sadly, that will not happen now, although I did hear his son, jean Jacques, was teaching in Florida?

Jeff

 

[glennv]

Indeed the course was excelent !!!!
Check out my report about the course and some pictures at :
http://www.apnea-amsterdam.com/articles/UMBERTO2006.php

 

[jome]

Sounds very, very good!

I was thinking about going there but could not find the time/money/motivation. But I'll definately try to make it in the future...

By the way, did they really require you demonstrate all the exercises from the book? A lot of them simply don't make sense to me...But then, what do I know

 

[glennv]

You should !
Even if you don't want to become an instructor it was definately worth it. And no we did not have to show each and every excercise, but just practicing them at home made you more aware of your body in the water. Just try for instance without any mask / goggles / suit to float vertically at between 1 or 2 meters down in the pool , staying motionless for at least a minute fixated at a point on the wall. E.g. perfect buoancy sensitivity. Little bit too much air in your lungs and you go up. Too little and you go to the bottom.
This kind of stuff makes you more aware of your body in the water.

A guy I met 3 years ago has this mastered to perfection (Igor Liberty) and uses this for his underwater dance routines ( http://www.apnea-amsterdam.com/forum/index.php/topic,42.0.html ) .

 

[trux]

Just adding credits to the original location of the video containg also more details and other apnea related art. I believe Igor and his Hydrosphere website deserve it:

http://www.bioapnea.com/
http://www.bioapnea.com/4_delta_Hydrosphere.htm

 

[glennv]

You are right. Forgot to mention it.
He is a very dear friend of mine and I invited him once to the Netherlands where he gave a workshop. Very worthwile. Gives you a whole new idea about the term buoancy.
He also organises yearly trips to freedive in mountain lakes / rivers etc. (check his site e.g. http://www.bioapnea.com/AIDAmeet2005/meeting 2005 display.htm.
Probably he will do one again next year. Will keep you updated.....

 

[appyguy]

Hi Jeff,
I am basically a hard out spearo. Where I live in New Zealand there is no access to proper training and very little interest in structured apnea training. I pretty much went with an open mind around what I may learn, being that my interest is spearfishing and not dedicated freediving. In saying that, I believe we have been given valuable tools from the course to build our diving capacity.

I think Umberto probably is your better choice if you want someone who puts forward the Jacque Mayol philosphy. Jacque Mayol was Umberto's mentor and Umberto trained with him extensively.

The response back in NZ has been interesting with quite a number of the spearfishers showing an interest in me running a course for them. They seem to see the value in what I have been taught.

 

[efattah]

After I read Glenn's description of this course, I realize I would have FAILED IT BY FAR. I can't swim worth crap. I have no ability to do front crawl, and my breast stroke sucks (which is why my DNF distance is less than half of my DYF distance!) I can't even imagine doing butterfly.

However my inability to swim doesn't seem to impair my ability to dive with a monofin...

 

[naiad]

I can't swim worth crap. I have no ability to do front crawl, and my breast stroke sucks (which is why my DNF distance is less than half of my DYF distance!) I can't even imagine doing butterfly.

Me too! I can do breast stroke reasonably ok, but I have tried and failed to do front crawl properly. The problem is that I get too tired. I don't think I'll ever be a good swimmer, but it hasn't been much of a problem for diving.

It's a relief to know I'm not the only one, the great Eric F is in the same boat as me...

 

[glennv]

Before I also sucked at breaststroke, but some dedicated training for a couple of weeks fixed that in time for the course. (butterfly is NOT a requirement)
You may wonder why you would need breaststroke for freediving (i know a person who can not even swim but is a good freediver) ?
But just think of Umberto's way of freediving as a whole concept. It has to do with moving in the water in any way possible and feel natural , move graciously . Lots of his excersises target this . You should become part of the water not try and fight through it. Moreso if you are an instructor. Imagine you swim as an instructor in a pool to your students and you move like an ape. How would that appear. Just see umberto move in the pool and you know what i mean.

Another thing more directly related is , how would you swim as fast as possible to a location in the sea where someone is in need of a resque.
If you can not do a propper fast crawl you may loose a fellow diver in problem before you can apply all your fancy CPR skills etc.

 

[Mullins]

Where in NZ are you from Steve? There is a fair bit of interest in structured freedive training in Wellington and Auckland at the moment - are you familiar with the NoBubbles and Lazy Seal clubs? It would be great to catch up with somebody who's done the apnea academy course so if you're handy to Wellington maybe you could drop into one of our sessions. Most of the training we do is along slightly different lines so we'd love to hear from the AA side of things.

 

[appyguy]

Hi Mullins,
Im in Whangarei, and there is no structured training available here.

A couple of yoears ago I did a introductory course with John Wright at no bubbles in Auckland. I occaisionally get to Wellington with my work, so may have an opportunity to catch up sometime.

Steve

 

[naiad]

Before I also sucked at breaststroke, but some dedicated training for a couple of weeks fixed that in time for the course. (butterfly is NOT a requirement)

I managed to learn breaststroke, and I am now reasonably good. Front crawl is another matter. I have put a lot of effort in, but I just can't do it for more than about 30m.

Another thing more directly related is , how would you swim as fast as possible to a location in the sea where someone is in need of a resque.
If you can not do a propper fast crawl you may loose a fellow diver in problem before you can apply all your fancy CPR skills etc.

That's true. For that reason I wouldn't feel confident to rescue someone in open water, away from something like a rope.
[ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?t=62635"]Middle lane vs side lane for dynamics[/ame]

 

[glennv]

Naiad,

Oeps i ment to say i sucked at front crawl. (my breaststroke was alwas ok).
What helped me a lot was joining a swimming fitness class , where you have to go all out in several strokes for 45 minutes. In the beginning i litteraly died and drowned after about 5 minutes. But after some sessions it became easier and easier and my crawl improved big time. Also the distance I am able to swimm seems to be directly related to technique and rhythm. If your technique sucks you mess up the breathing rhythm and that makes you very tired very soon. Polishing up your rhythm and you immediately do much and much more distance. Start with 1 breath every 2 strokes and gradualy go down to every 3 , 4 or more strokes. Breathe out under water evenly and finish the exhale just before you turn your head to breath. Go back up the breathing tempo again after a while when you get tired but try to keep the breathing tempo as low as possible (alos good for your CO2 tolerance training). Try and make the strokes even and long (like you are reaching for something in front of you). There are some interesting instruction videos with different excersises on the net , which may help you.

http://www.goswim.tv/drilloftheweek_archives.php

 

[naiad]

I can't even do 1 breath every 1 stroke!

I will try again and see what happens, as something must be going wrong and I don't know what.

Glenn, thanks for the link - those are the best swimming exercise videos I've seen.

Lucia

 

[Narsil]

I am basically a hard out spearo. Where I live in New Zealand there is no access to proper training and very little interest in structured apnea training.

Sounds like a great course appyguy. Love to hear more.

Like Mullins said, freediving is alive and well in NZ. Clubs in Auckland and Wellington, with people active in Christchurch as well. A lot of the local freedivers, myself included, seem to have migrated from spearfishing or still do it actively (shot my first Warehau on the weekend).

If you want a pool session next time you come south, to meet a few Wellington freedivers / spearo's PM me. You can find our club training times on http://www.lazyseal.co.nz/

Cheers

 

[jome]

I'm not much of a swimmer either, but it sounded like the level required could be achieved with reasonably easy with a little dedicated training.

I like the kind of approach, where an instructor is required to be able to do things that are not directly related to diving. He is responsible for the students, who may do incredibly surprising and stupid things. Maybe one of them goes into some panic attack just when you're removing your fins etc. You must be prepared to move efficiently through the water with what ever means are available. And I also like the philosophy that you must demostrate perfect technique, because they will be imitating your every move. So true...(for the bulk of students, not talking about the star students who seem to find their own way). I'd hate to have a student drown on me just because I never bothered to learn to swim...

Anywho, I'm sure the exercieses in Umberto's book are well thought and have some meaning, but most of them are not exactly "self study"-material. It's not something one can easily pick up from a book, IMO. But not that many AA-courses being held in Finland either

I've come to realize that there are many different "schools" of diving, and each has some good things and some I don't agree with. But I still would like to get trained in all if possible. Maybe I won't learn anything new, maybe nothing will change, but at least I get to see the way others approach diving.

It was a joy watching the French dive in Nice a coupe of weeks back. How they just love the water and are comfortable in it. Most of them don't read deeperblue, or even speak english or are very aware of our little "scene", they have their own thing going with the weird monofins and all...And even though there was several WR level guys on boat, no one went deeper than 30m I think, but they still had a blast. It's very hard to put into words, but something just clicked in my head and I saw "our way" in a totally different light. This is where opportunities for deep diving are too few, so every time we see water that is deeper than our PB, we're crunching down there, scared half dead.

Anyway, I'm sure I would have a lot to learn from Umberto and his gang, who have had access to water every day for decades and dedicated their lives to apnea. Despite being the most avid internet geek diver, I have dived (diven? help me out here so very little compared to them...I might able to recite from memory exercises for learning the Frenzel, but there are some things people have been doing for decades I haven't even thought of...

I think one good example is William not using a lanyard for an 81m dive. To the AIDA school, that must seem suicidal and crazy! Even personally, I don't agree with that...But who say's using a lanyard is the only way to be safe...It's a good one, to be sure, but there are other ways too...(edit: hmm, seems it's ok even by AIDA rules...Didn't know that...But just goes to show ya, there's always something to learn

 

[bluecape]

Hi all

Was just getting amped to try and set things up to do Umberto's instructors course, but have just read on his site that it only happens every 2 years.
So may plan my trip anyway to go to Sharm in november to do his freedivers course instead, and then possibly instructors the following year.
Most...well virtually all..of my freediving has been spearing / photography stuff, so exposure to CW and apnea in warm, clean water, as well as the Static and all related freediving techniques may be very beneficial anyway.

So any other DB members keen for the november freediving course with Umberto's academy on Novermer, Red Sea??

Jeff

 

[Ricochet]

Hmm.. a course in November sounds great. I wanted to participate in a course for quite some time now, but courses are rarely seeded.
Got any further infos? I couldn't find any at the official page.

I've got more than enough leave days left to spend